"I'm you," the dark reflection of Link said. "I'm the part of yourself that you prefer to keep in the dark. Dark Link, if you will."
"Where are Edelgard and Claude?" Link demanded.
"Facing themselves, of course," Dark Link told Link. "Facing the truth about yourself is something you have to do alone."
"What do you mean, the truth about myself?" Link demanded.
"Why do you think you're so excited to get your hands on the sword that seals the darkness?" Dark Link asked. "Is it really because you want to defeat Calamity Ganon? Or do you just want some kind of proof that you're still worthy to wield it?"
"I don't know what you're talking about," Link denied.
"Don't you? Deep down, you don't think you deserve to be the Hero, do you?" Dark Link taunted. "All throughout your quest, you've been dependent on other people. It galls you, doesn't it? They should be depending on you, not the other way around. You're so arrogant! Blaming yourself for the current state of Hyrule. You really thought you could have beaten Calamity Ganon on your own?"
Link drew his sword and tried to fight Dark Link, but Dark Link fought him off with ease. "Fool. You can't fight me while fighting yourself!"
"You just don't want to admit that I'm right," Dark Link gloated. "You're a failure, Link. You haven't even been able to destroy the Blight Ganons so far! Marianne, Caspar, and Cyril deserve to be the Hero of Hyrule more than you do!"
"As long as someone defeats Ganon..." Link said.
"What, you don't want to be the one to do it? It's your destiny, isn't it?" Dark Link said mockingly. "Your friends aren't worthy to use the Master Sword. And you're a failure."
"My friends—"
"Deep down, they're worse failures than you," Dark Link said. "Maybe that's why they appeared in the Shrine with you. Failure attracting failure."
Link lashed out again at Dark Link, but Dark Link defeated this attack just as effortlessly. "What sort of horrible secrets do you think they hide?"
Dark Edelgard was really getting to Edelgard. "You're such a self-righteous little brat," Dark Edelgard told her.
"Don't call me a brat," Edelgard threatened.
"Why not? You're the one who wanted to start a war without even trying diplomacy first," Dark Edelgard said. "You could have talked things out with Dimitri and Claude. You could have come up with a suitable plan for real change. Together you could have put enough pressure on Rhea to support you, and made whatever changes you agreed upon. But you didn't even want to try that, did you? You chose violence."
"I had to draw out Those who Slither in the Dark!" Edelgard protested.
"There were other ways to do it and you know it," Dark Edelgard said. "You want to know why you didn't try diplomacy? It's because you were afraid your solutions to Fodlan's problems wouldn't hold up to real scrutiny. You act like you know all the answers. You don't know anything. You even fell for Thales's lies about the Nabateans, even though you knew he couldn't be trusted!"
"Shut up!" Edelgard swung her axe at Dark Edelgard, but Dark Edelgard caught the haft. "Ha! You can't fight me while fighting yourself."
"You might as well just give up now," Dark Claude told Claude. "It'll be easier for you. And you're all about taking the easy path, aren't you?"
"Whatever do you mean?" Claude asked. "I'm currently on a quest to fight a world-ending monster, aren't I?"
"A quest where there is no obvious easy solution, and you've still tried cutting corners, even if it costs innocent people's lives," Dark Claude told him. "Or have you forgotten that man you killed because you wouldn't risk making a hard shot that would have saved his life?
"What of your other quest? The one to end xenophobia in Fodlan? You certainly were going to choose the easy path there. I mean, did you really think Archbishop Rhea was the source of it? The woman who the Western Church hates for not treating foreigners badly? Or was she just someone convenient for you to label as the enemy?
"And if you did manage to get rid of her, do you think the faithful would suddenly start being open to Almyran influence? What a joke. If you had gotten rid of Rhea, the people of Fodlan would treat Almyra like another Duscur. Worse, in fact, because there would be no Rhea to speak out against the resulting crusade. Can't you see it? 'Trust not the Almyran, for his honeyed words hide a venomous bite.' The faithful would never forgive Almyra or you.
"But actually addressing the root causes of the hatred between your peoples would take real effort, right? Everyone, bow before Khalid, Prince of the easy path! No matter how dire the consequences of taking it might be!"
"I changed my plans when I realized she wasn't the root cause of the problem," Claude tried to counter. He swung his sword at Dark Claude, but Dark Claude dodged effortlessly and continued.
"Maybe, but you thought that it might be better if you returned to see the Central Church already destroyed. 'They might not be the cause of the problem, but they're unlikely to be part of the solution. I may not have to destroy them, but there's no reason I should help them,' you thought. Their lives didn't matter to you, just your goal. You're just like your ancestor! You don't care if innocent people die, just as long as you get what you want!"
"I'm not like him!" Claude denied.
"Really?" Dark Claude asked.
Claude angrily swiped at Dark Claude with his sword, only for Dark Claude to effortlessly bat him aside. "Nuh uh uh! You can't fight me while fighting yourself!"
Link once again found himself on the ground, having been soundly bested by Dark Link. "Do you want to try again? They say insanity is trying the same thing over and over expecting a different result, but..."
Link moved to a guard position, but didn't try to attack again. Instead, he simply caught his breath.
"Maybe he's right about me," he thought. Maybe Link was just a failure.
Except...
There were reasons he fought that didn't allow for failure.
Images of the people he'd helped across Hyrule flashed through his mind. As he got up, the last of the people he remembered was Zelda.
"I'm going to save them, and I'm going to save her. Even if it kills me."
"Oh, you're ready to try again?" Dark Link said mockingly.
"You're right," Link said. "I did fail, a century ago. And maybe I'll fail again. But I'm going to fight to the end, because I have a reason to fight."
For the first time, Dark Link lost his cool. "What are you doing?"
"I'm going to save Hyrule, and I'm going to save Zelda," Link said. "I won't let you stop me."
"Then you're going to have to go through me!" Dark Link said, attacking Link wildly.
However, his fighting was far worse than it had been before. Likely, he was remembering Link's own feelings, and that made it hard for him to fight. "You can't fight me while fighting yourself," Link mocked, stabbing Dark Link through the heart.
Link awoke in front of the Mirror of Truth. Looking to his sides, he saw his friends were still catatonic. He tried poking them, but got no response.
"I don't know if you can hear me, but your dark selves are telling you the truth. You need to accept it!" He shouted, hoping his friends would hear him.
Edelgard was being thrashed by Dark Edelgard, but eventually, she stopped trying to fight. "You're right about me," Edelgard admitted. "I was ignoring every peaceful solution I could have reached. I wanted to be the one to fix Fodlan's problems. I wanted to be a hero."
"It is too late to put down that axe, me. We can't end this fight without a kill," Dark Edelgard said.
"So be it," Edelgard said. "But do you really want to kill me, or do you want me to keep suffering because you are suffering?"
Dark Edelgard said nothing. The two simply stared at each other for several seconds. Then, at the same time, they charged at one another. Dark Edelgard's swing missed, but Edelgard's removed Dark Edelgard's head from her shoulders. And after Dark Edelgard fell, the real Edelgard awoke from her vision.
"You have a point," Claude admitted. "I do seek easy solutions. The problem wasn't Rhea, or Fodlan's Locket, or anything else I tried to blame. Nothing in life is ever so easy.
"But there is a problem I have to face now, and that problem is Calamity Ganon," Claude continued. "And for once the solution is clear to see, even if it isn't easy. Calamity Ganon must be destroyed. And I can't help Link and the others do that from here."
"No. No you can't," Dark Claude concurred.
"Are you going to let me go?" Claude asked.
"I want to," Dark Claude admitted. "But you've determined to not take the easy path anymore, so I can't either." Dark Claude then unslung his bow and nocked an arrow.
Claude did the same. Both drew at the same time, and fired at the same time.
Claude stood firm. Dark Claude tried to dodge the arrow.
And dodged right into the arrow's flight path. "I knew you would do that, and I knew you thought I would," Claude said as he awoke.
Claude woke up to his three friends watching him intently. "Aw man, I was the last one to come to terms with my faults?" he whined. "Figures I'm the worst person here."
"At least you didn't try to start a war without trying diplomacy, on bad information," Edelgard assured him.
"I kind of did, actually, though it never got past the planning stage. And at least you had information, bad as it might have been. I had assumptions, and I didn't want to put in the effort to tackle the real problems in Fodlan," Claude admitted.
"We all have that darkness inside of us," Link assured them. "It's what makes us people. We could talk about it, if you like. I won't judge you."